Susan Kennedy Art

This little simple wash type of painting is what I've been doing for warm-ups this week, to get inspired. They have a Chinese Watercolor kind of a feel to them, but I love watercolor for its bleedy, flowing color-into-color character, and sure enough, it made its own mark on the effort. Two simple washes, with time to dry in between, and a fanciful cutout kind of a drawing that it started with. It was an imaginary bird, which ended up being a rainbow-colored little guy. Can't say I've seen one like him, but he's good for a little watercolor reverie. You might try a simple wash of a simple line drawing to get inspired just by transparent color and crisp paper. Invigorating! Best wishes for an arty day, Susan susankennedy.com

Wow, these commissions feel like children by the time it's all done...this is the biggest one I've done in a while, at least in watercolor; it's a full sheet, 22 x 30. Here it is partway done, I'm about to finish and wrap it up! Show me your work and have a super artsy day! If you want to see lots of the things I've been working on you can check out this ebay spot, or see my instructional art ebooks and a painting demonstration video at this page. Thanks for visiting!

It's always a delight and a shock, somehow, to get back to watercolor and remember its power. The paper is such an element in this medium, almost a character in the plot of the painting. Layer too much, fiddle just once, use the wrong colors, scrub too much, and you can watch your beloved floral breathe its last right under your very eyes. That's why one gets so crazy about the medium: it's a cruel master, but a very beautiful, challenging, demanding and fascinating one. I love love love it! You can see my items at my website!

This is awesome!

You don't see something like this every day... I actually snapped this shot as we were barrelling down the interstate in West Virginia. That tree on the left looks so solitary, the fog so mysterious and somber. Makes me want to paint a painting, or make a jigsaw puzzle out of it, I'm not sure which! By which I mean, it's so dramatic, it almost crosses over into the category of trite. Can't put my finger on why.

Wow, they never stop...maybe in the morning it's some other gargantuan bug besides a cicada. I should know this. The grass is dead, the kids are leaving. I truly hate August. Check out my art which is usually much more uplifting that this post: susankennedy.com

This little doodle is the sort of thing which has been on my mind lately...more fanciful things which speak of heaven and show the bits of heaven in earth and (I hope) earth in heaven. My littlest and I have been collaborating on some multiple part linocut prints, hopefully will put something on about our process. Who would have thought Middle School style printing projects would be so compelling? The second picture shows some of our tools. This particular print is up for auction now on my ebay store, and I hope to finish up lots more pieces which take it in a different direction.

And here is a sort of an artist's bio, if a fridge reflects a bit of who you are. I'm particularly happy when I look at the handmade pinwheel that sits in a vase on the top.

Been a long time since I updated this, obviously. A lot of things going on, a lot of turmoil as well as creative growth...don't they usually go hand in hand? My latest thoughts are of God and heaven, fear and courage, and I'm often taking a break from my beloved realism to follow those themes in abstraction. I hope you'll indulge me and enjoy my more recent work, which is dear to my heart. These pieces tend to be ethereal abstracts. They often end up reminding one of earth from space, or of geological strata, or of distant mountains and the passes through them. They often remind me of places from books, like Rivendell or The Woods Between the Worlds, and the image I attached grew to be my idea of what Lewis' Land of Bism might seem like. Check back for more, I hope to continue! Yours artfully, Susan